"This newsletter is published
once a month with a link to the online addition available
to subscribers only. We do not
spam or sell our list to anyone"

George W. Penington,Editor and Webmaster for The Hunley.com Newsletter and Website

ALL
issues are dedicated to the brave and honorable Men of the Hunley and
to the Subscribers and Contributors to each issue, particularly to the CSS H L HUNLEY
CLUB and The Post and Courier. Donations are
freely excepted to fray the cost.
ENJOYPlease click
here,to
subscribe: Please click
here,
to sign
the guest book or leave a comment.:Top

THE TIGERS ARE IN TOWN Clemson
University takes over the Warren Lasch Center, 82 acres of land,
a dry dock and a wharf along with $10.3 million in State money
to start the new "Restoration Institute" a satellite Clemson
Campus in Charleston.

The Warren
Lasch Center is the home of the
Confederate States Submarine H L
Hunley which is now
held by the closed private company Friends
of the Hunley, Inc. responsible for the preservation of the one
hundred and forty
two year old submarine discovered in 1970 by local
Marine Archaeologist Dr. E. Lee
Spence and finally raised in 2000
from 27 feet of water at
the mouth of Charleston Harbor.

The Warren
Lasch Center has been shrouded in controversy
including the
resignation of its namesake Warren Lasch who was involved with the
States Port Authority, and several lawsuits
around the accounting
of millions of dollars in state and private
funds. To the
frustration of many, Friends of the Hunley, Inc.
has been very lax
in releasing information including financial
accounting and
scientific and historical information about the
submarine. The
Friends of the Hunley are the subject of a lawsuit
in the S.C.
Supreme Court over whether it must publicly disclose its finances
and actions which many suspect as a cover up for mis-appropriation
and shifty accounting.

Plans are now
to build a 22,000 square foot addition to the
existing lab as part
of Phase one which will finally end up as
a total 65,000 square foot
facility to be completed by the year
2008. The dreams are for the
new Clemson University
Restoration
Institute to contract to handle all of the
preservation work
needed on items recovered from ocean
discoveries with a
"cutting-edge metallurgy and textiles restoration center".

Part of the
deal with Clemson University requires them to
finish the work needed
on the CSS H L Hunley or the property
will revert back to the city
of North Charleston.

"These
facilities will form the nucleus of a vibrant university
research campus," Clemson President James Barker said in
the cover
letter to his presentation to the trustees. Clemson is
also trying
to build a " Clemson University Architecture Center
in the middle
of Charleston's historic district on land the city of
Charleston has
given Clemson for a 22,000-square-foot
architecture school on
George Street is in the middle of historic Ansonborough, where
residents are protesting the construction
of a modern-style building
amid their historic homes.
Clemson plans to break ground on the downtown
$7 million
structure this year if all approvals are met.

The Hunley
Commission approved the the deal, which would
urn over the
conservation lab to Clemson in exchange for the
university funding
the Confederate sub's restoration.

Clemson will
take over the lab with as much as 90 full-time
employees and a
payroll of more than $5 million annually. The
remaining Hunley
scientists will keep their current jobs, and
FOTH, Inc. will
continue to raise money for the restoration
and the sub's museum.
Clemson plans to eventually build
a 65-acre campus that would create
between 2,000 and
4,750 jobs with annual payrolls between $125.8
million
and $286.3 million.

Clemson wants
to make the old Navy base a national center for restoration and
development of new technology.

"We think
South Carolina is well-positioned to have a world-class materials
conservation laboratory," said Jan Schach, dean
of Clemson's College
of Architecture, Arts and Humanities and
director of the
university's restoration institute.

Clemson
expects to have the Hunley restored and ready for
display in a
permanent museum by 2009.

"Clemson University is ranked by
U.S. News & World Report magazine as the leading
national university in South Carolina and 39th among the
nation's top public universities."
CLEMSON NEWS

THIS
PLAN HAS BEEN IN THE MILL SINCE 2002
CLEMSON -- Clemson University is joining an international effort
to conserve the H.L. Hunley, the first submarine in
history to sink a warship in battle. The Civil War submarine,
recovered off the coast of South Carolina, is one of the largest
intact metal artifacts ever recovered from the ocean floor. But
its size -- 45 feet -- and wrought iron and cast iron
composition have complicated the job of conserving the
submarine, which is now being maintained in a special chilled
freshwater solution at the Warren Lasch Conservation
Center....excerpt from article by WRITER: Sandy Dees <sdeesba@clemson.edu>of
Clemson University....original
article

Clemson is working to restore the Civil War submarine H.L.
Hunley
and develop a 65-acre research campus in North Charleston
that
could employ thousands. The city council donated 80 acres
of land, valued at $14.5 million, on the former Charleston Navy
Base for that purpose.

The property includes the Warren E. Lasch Conservation Center,
where the Hunley is being conserved. The Hunley Commission has
endorsed the transfer of the Lasch Center to Clemson.

The University will use the site to establish research space for
the Clemson University Restoration Institute (CURI) and expand
Hunley
work to include Clemson faculty and student research in
historic preservation, advanced building materials and assembly,
urban
ecology and healthy communities.

In September, Clemson was granted $10.3 million in matching
state
funds that will enhance the University’s commitment. The
S.C.
Bond Act Review Committee awarded the match — through the
state’s Research Universities Infrastructure Act.

Clemson will use the matching funds to upgrade the Lasch
Center,
improve infrastructure and landscaping at the site, and
build
the first facility on the North Charleston campus to support
esearch conducted through CURI.

CURI is the first formal academic organization focused on the
restoration economy, created to bring together experts and
researchers and to drive economic growth through restoration
industries and technology. It will have design and planning
studios
in the Clemson Architecture Center in historic downtown
Charleston and will locate its research and development
laboratories and facilities at the North Charleston campus.

This is a great opportunity for Clemson to show how science
and
business can work together to expand our economy and
provide new
jobs in our state, says S.C. House Speaker Robert
Harrell.

'm sure all
on the board are aware that today is the 142nd anniversary of
the CSS H.L. Hunley's final voyage. For me, it's a day to
reflect and remember the eight brave men who went to their
deaths in a determined attempt to strike a blow against the
enemy in defense of their cause. And I also want to remember
the five seamen from the Housatonic who perished that night. I
was touched when I read Richard Wills' master's thesis (recently
provided to us by Barry) and noticed that he had dedicated his
research to the memory of those five U.S. Navy sailors. Of
course brave men were not lacking on either side in that long
and terrible conflict we know as the American Civil War. And we
are fortunate that our country has always produced individuals
who have been willing to sacrifice their lives in defense of the
rights and freedoms we hold so dear. Fittingly, we remember
their sacrifice each year on Memorial Day. But today is
special, it is a day to remember all who made the ultimate
sacrifice for their country on the night of 17
Feb 1864.
Kim Johnson kljoh@yahoo.comThe art work of Daniel Dowdey with his permission http://www.dowdey.com

When Scientists released the discovery
of a series of complex "deadlights" covering the 10
portholes in the Hunley's crew cabin ceiling they were
measured to be about one inch-thick made of, cast-iron
and served to strengthen the hull to keep them
watertight particularly around the glass ports, one of
a sub's most vulnerable hull penetrations.

The
deadlights also served to mute the glow of light from
inside the submarine when she was running just beneath the
surface of the
water.

Even though the interior of the cabin was painted white
the need for more interior light became obvious yet they
had to also maintain their stealthiness by being able to
shut the light out to observing enemies. They thought
ahead about light giving away their position and the
more
serious problem of the results of leaking. All of these
optional equipment amendments added to the ingenious
advancement that
the designers thought out way in advance
of any planed attacks.
The Hunley was a stealthy, sleek
attack weapon not simply
something fashioned out of a
boiler.

In
old diagrams of the sub, the word "deadlight" appears in
connection with the ceiling portholes, which acted as
skylights
and illuminated the sub during the day. Most
people thought
that was merely a reference to the
portholes, not any mechanism
beneath them.

The
deadlight coverings have been hidden in the concretion
covering the submarine. Scientists are just beginning to
chip away
at the mass of silt, sand and shell that has
enveloped the sub like a cocoon for more than a century.
In some places, the concretion is
harder and thicker than
the sub's metal hull. Conservators have
cleared the
concretion from one of the two deadlights in the first
hull plate that scientists removed to gain access to the
sub in 2001.
The other remains buried under a mass of
concretion.

The
deadlights kept the Hunley hidden from Housatonic sailors
on the night of Feb. 17, 1864. Although one sailor
testified he
saw a faint glow of light, probably from the
forward conning tower,
it wasn't enough to give the Union
troops much of a target. No
survivors recounted seeing
light from multiple portholes.

With the sub cruising just 2 feet below the surface, the
portholes
-- if left uncovered -- would have looked like
an airport runway
at night, outlining the sub's exact
position.

The
thickness of the deadlights suggests they had a more
serious purpose, as a thin piece of tin could have blocked
the light.
Senior Hunley conservator
Paul Mardikian removed the glass from
the
deadlight and remains of a dome-shaped rubber gasket,
perfectly preserved.,

Senior conservator Paul Mardikian
watches as Philippe de Vivies chisels away
concretion Wednesday from one of the Hunley's hull
plates.

Mardikian said "the rubber may have buckled or the inside
of the deadlight cover could have been shaped to fit into
the porthole.
That would have made the sub watertight
around the glass,
which was only 1 centimeter thick and
vulnerable to gunshot -- or perhaps the repercussion of an
exploding torpedo. "

"It
was probably meant to plug it," Mardikian said. "It's very
funny
with the Hunley, how you think it is so simple and
when you get
into the details you are amazed at how well
it was constructed."

If you were sent a copy of this newsletter and want to help out
and subscribe, contribute or volunteer We can always use the
help. : Click
NEWSLETTERS
to sign up and to get back issues or if you would like to send a check you can send it to the address below ( Make checks out to The Hunley.com).

Total $10.00 or more
would be helpful and appreciated.

The Hunley.com808 Drayton St.Savannah, GA 31401.

Again thank you for
subscribing to the Hunley newsletter.

If you Enjoy this
Newsletter and want me to keep Publishing them Please make a donation and
become a Subscriber The button on the left will take you to PayPal or you can
send a check to the address at the bottom of the page.

Spence's location
for the wreck of the Hunley, which he published on a map in
his book Treasure's of the Confederate Coast, several months
before Cussler's alleged discovery, was within twenty-one
thousandths of an inch of the State's location,

CHARLESTON, SC-- Internationally known undersea
explorer E. Lee Spence, who is in a court battle, with best
selling novelist Clive Cussler, over credit for the discovery of
the Civil War submarine Hunley, has just won an important judgment
in a similar case. In that case, Spence sued
Odyssey Marine
Exploration, Inc.,
(AMEX: OMR),
Seahawk Deep Ocean Technology, Inc. (SHWK.PK
) Gregg Stem, John Morris,
and others, alleging that Odyssey’s 2004 discovery of the steamer
Republic, with its reported one billion in
gold and
silver, used Spence’s confidential and proprietary research to
target and find the wreck.

Will Lee Spence get a few pieces of
Eight?

GOLD FROM THE SS
REPUBLIC

On February 10, 2006, a judge in Charleston
awarded Spence and his partners a whopping $121,000,000 from one
of the defendants, Seahawk Deep Ocean Technology, Inc. The case is still
going forward against Odyssey et al. Spence is seeking
$309,000,000 in damages relating to the Hunley from Cussler and
says he is "looking forward to the jury hearing his case. " As you
may know, Spence's location for the wreck of the Hunley, which he
published on a map in his book Treasure's of the Confederate
Coast, several months before Cussler's alleged discovery, was
within twenty-one thousandths of an inch of the State's location,
if they were marked on the same map. Spence first located the
Hunley and reported his discovery to the State in 1970.

Cussler's National Underwater & Marine Agency sued
Spence in 2002, claiming he defamed Cussler and published false
statements about the charity.

Spence filed a countersuit in the same court,
claiming Cussler and the NUMA discredited him and his discovery.

Cussler's promise to give any damages recovered from Spence in
the case to charity was considered obnoxious and ordered removed
from the lawsuit.

Spence never expected to be in this position
particularly after having been commended by the State in 1995 for
the "important role you have played in the discovery of the Hunley.
"

Spence received service of a lawsuit from
his nemesis, Clive Cussler from Colorado. Cussler is the Board Chairman
of his own organization called National Underwater and Marine
Agency (NUMA), and attorney Richard Tapp, who is also the
attorney for the Hunley Commission and Friends of the Hunley,
Inc. The suit filed in
October, 2001 asks for a jury to decide who first located the
sub: Spence in 1970, or Cussler's group in 1995. Spence is
now fighting the battle to be allowed to present his evidence
and documentation of his discovery to the jury pending the
outcome of the next hearing.

CHARLESTON, S.C. - Best-selling crime author Patricia Cornwell will
donate at least $500,000 to help researchers solve the mystery of
the sinking of the Confederate submarine Hunley, the first sub in
history to sink an enemy warship.

"This is a crime scene and you are doing an autopsy on that
submarine," Cornwell told The Associated Press Tuesday. "It's much
like Jack the Ripper you take the best modern science and apply it
to a very old investigation and see if you can make the dead speak
after all these years."

The eight-man, hand-cranked sub rammed a spar with black powder into
the Union blockade ship Housatonic off Charleston on Feb. 17, 1864.
The Hunley never made it back.

The sub was located off Charleston 11 years ago and raised in 2000.

Cornwell, whose 20 crime books include her series of thrillers
featuring medical examiner Kay Scarpetta, often conducts research in
working labs to give her novels added realism. She visited the
Hunley in its conservation lab a month ago and worked with Dr. Jamie
Downs, the coastal regional medical examiner for the state of
Georgia who has worked on the Hunley project.

Cornwell said one of the purposes of her donation is to bring in
equipment such as high-tech computers that might help solve the
mystery of the sinking. That equipment includes an infrared device
able to show structural weaknesses in metal.

She also said she may recruit other scientists she has met over the
years including experts in metal from the Oak Ridge National
Laboratory who may be able to help unravel the Hunley mystery.

"They may not find anything that answers the question," she said in
an interview from New York. "I'm simply saying this should not be
put to rest without us doing everything we can to try to figure out
what happened to the Hunley and what killed these eight people on
board."

There are generally two theories about the sinking. One is that the
glass in the conning tower was shot out during the attack, allowing
water to rush into the iron vessel. The other is that the crew ran
out of air as they tried to crank the sub back to shore.

In December, scientists said that in removing encrustation from the
front conning tower, the view port glass was missing. If shattered
glass is found at the bottom of the sub, it could indicate it was
broken during battle. But if it is found largely intact, it might
indicate it broke when the sub was sinking. The floor of the sub is
still encrusted with hardened sediment.

A Thursday news conference was scheduled to discuss Cornwell's
involvement in the project.

But she told the AP there were no plans to write a book about the
Hunley, such as her 2002 book that explored the identity of Jack the
Ripper, who killed at least seven prostitutes in London's East End
in 1888.

For North
Carolina members (the Hunley replica is only partially
accurate, but does include changes based on actual finds):
KINSTON -- Battle re-enactments, military demonstrations, 19th-
century music and a reproduction of a Confederate submarine will be
some of the highlights of a living history weekend planned for March
4-5 in Kinston.

Battle re-enactments will be held both Saturday and Sunday on U.S.
258 south of Kinston, about a quarter-mile south of its intersection
with U.S. 70. The location is the site of an 1862 Civil War battle
for the town.

Camps of both Confederate and Union re-enactors will open to the
public at 9 a.m. and close at 5 p.m.

A variety of demonstrations, including artillery, cavalry, civilian,
infantry, and medical, as well as music and sutlers (vendors who
sell
original and reproduction items), will begin at 9 a.m. on Saturday.
Also on hand will be a full-scale reproduction of the Confederate
submarine C.S.S. Hunley, the first working submarine ever used in
warfare.

Other highlights of the living history weekend will include a re-
enactment of the capture of the 15th Connecticut Regiment by
Confederate troops on Saturday and an attack by forces under the
command of Gen. Robert Hoke on Sunday.

Sunday's battle will be the first re-enactment of the Battle of Wyse
Fork to held near the site of the original battle. The Battle of
Wyse
Fork, fought in 1865, was the second largest Civil War battle fought
in North Carolina.

Admission is $5 per person, with children 12 and under free.
Proceeds will go toward the preservation of the two Lenoir County
Civil War battlefields.

The event is sponsored by the Historical Preservation Group, the
Lenoir County Battlefields Commission and the Kinston Convention and
Visitor's Bureau. For more information, visit
www.kinstoncivilwar.com
or contact Si Lawrence at the Eastern Civil War Office at
919-581-1041, or
silawrence@ncmail.net.Brought to our
attention by JVNAUTILUS

Hello
Group;
I meant to
join quite some time ago after I posted at George
Penington's site...[The Hunley.com] my theory of the Hunley's
ballast tank operation entitled "How did the Hunley's ballast
tanks work and how did she submerge?"

George you invited me to join at that time, but I never got around
to
it til now. Thanks for the invite.

I continue to be very interested in the Hunley, but now my
interest is
also turning to another lost submarine wreck now that the Hunley
is
safely with us and will be studies for the next 20 or 30 years. I
am
wondering if anyone, knows anything, about whether or not there
are any efforts ongoing to try and find McClintock's second
submarine called the Pioneer 2 and also called the American Diver
that floundered in mobile bay while being towed in rough seas?
This boat looks like and is the prototype for the Hunley. She was
also the first submarine to use an experimental electric motor
that was deemed underpowered and uninstalled and a hand operated
crank was installed in its place. The Hunley sank the first ship
sunk by a sub as far as we know thus far, (there are sketchy
reports I have heard of other sub sinking before the Hunley, but
none proven) but the American diver was the prototype for the
Hunley and I am unable to find anything at all about a search to
find her. Anyone know anything about an American diver search?
Bill Akins."Bill Akins" <lakins1@tampabay.rr.com>

Hi Bill.
Welcome to the group.

I remember reading something about a half-hearted effort to find
the
second boat a long time ago. If I remember correctly, some experts
believed that it would have sunk deeper into the muck than the
Hunley, and that there's no known reference point to search from.
Unlike the Hunley, it's neither a legend, nor an engineering
marvel, nor a compelling bit of Civil War history, and thus little
reason to spend a lot of money trying to find it.

The first boat, the Pioneer, is known to have been recovered by
the
Federals after the war. The famous "Rebel Submarine Ram" diagram
shows its design in elegant detail. Sadly, the Pioneer was sold
for scrap.

Tours of
the Hunley
are available 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturdays and noon-5 p.m.
Sundays. Tours are not available on weekdays so that
the archaeologists can continue their preservation
work.

Tickets are $10 plus a service
charge and can be purchased by either calling
1-877-448-6539 or on the Internet at
www.etix.com.
Children under 5 are free. Tickets can be purchased in
advance, and walk-up tickets are also available on a
first-come, first-served basis.

CLIVE E. CUSSLERPRESS PHOTO

GEORGE E. DIXONPRESS PHOTO

NEW CONTEST: GUESS THE MIDDLE
NAMES
For several years now we have been asking if anyone knew
Lt. George E. Dixons Middle Name and what the E.
stood for and no one has been able to definitively answer
the question.
Here are two
clues. Number One is that's Cussler is the Left Picture
above and the
Second is that his middle name starts with E. just like
George E. Dixon. Cussler once said that he thought he
might be Dixon re-incarnate. The contest is included as a survey
or you can E-mail me
mistergwp@thehunley.com . First
right answer gets this Hunley Collectors Coin. Thanks and
enjoy.
Contest and Survey

The
National Trust's Southern Office and the
Morris Island Coalition are working together to raise money to buy the
site. Blake Hallman of the Morris Island Coalition
is quoted in the
Post and Courier as stating, "It's a travesty to build on a
graveyard
where brave men fought and died" "If the property falls off the
market or is developed
the state and nation will lose out to a "few privileged people in a
bed and breakfast."

The final selling price is secret but the value for the land has
floated, ranging between $4 million and $12.5 million. It was
appraised at $4.1 million in 2001.For More Information on this topic

The
Ginn Co. purchased a chunk of the island for $6.5 million
Wednesday and agreed to resell it to the nonprofit Trust for
Public Land for $4.5 million. The company also agreed to
donate $500,000 to help plan for the island's future, company
founder and president Bobby Ginn said.

in the
Charleston and Mount Pleasant area. The people who will live
in and use these facilities will now have a new oceanfront
park that they can go to," Ginn said. "That's the motivation,
if any. As Charleston and Mount Pleasant go, we go."

Ginn
bought the property from the Yaschik Development Co. of
Charleston, which paid about $3 million during a foreclosure
proceeding in the mid-1980s. The island's profile has risen in
recent years as various developers proposed building as many
as 60 homes on the island, which can be reached only by boat.